In Episode 4, Dayna Boyko — child forensic interviewing specialist, president of Helix Investigative Consulting Inc., and retired Toronto Police Service (TPS) investigator — joins our Investigator Chronicles host, Christine Thomlinson, to talk about how to get accurate, reliable accounts from child complainants and witnesses. Drawing on 25 years with TPS, including 16 years with the Internet Child Exploitation Team, where she worked as a general investigator, online undercover officer, and lead child interviewer, Dayna explains how a structured, developmentally informed protocol, built on neutrality, open-ended questions, and non-contingent support, helps children provide evidence in a way that supports accuracy, rather than answers shaped to please the interviewer.
Throughout the episode, Christine and Dayna explore the practical choices that can make interviews with children more accurate, fair, and developmentally appropriate. Their conversation moves from question design and interview planning to grooming investigations, peer review, and the often-overlooked importance of investigator well-being.
In this episode, Christine and Dayna discuss:
- Why questions that start with “when” are one of the biggest errors interviewers make with children under ten, and how to get that information another way
- How Dayna builds an interview plan that helps guard against tunnel vision, and why she always has a colleague review it before her interviews
- The stages of grooming, and the specific questions that help surface steps a survivor may not have recognized as grooming at the time
- Why Dayna considers taking care of your own wellbeing an essential, often overlooked skill for investigators
Through Helix Investigative Consulting Inc., Dayna continues to practise as a child forensic interviewing specialist. She is widely regarded as one of Canada’s, if not North America’s, foremost experts on interviewing young survivors and witnesses of sexual violence.
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